The Heart of Tony Winters

by P. S. Power

  If she could do it. Tony actually thought that she could, as long as she didn’t freeze up at any point. That was interesting, since he was nearly positive that she wouldn’t be able to beat him. Which would mean that he’d managed to get better over the last few months, if nothing else. The first time that he’d worked his little Fox act it had been hard to really pull off. It still was, but the reasons were exactly opposite now. He really had to keep his skills in check, so that he didn’t do the wrong thing. Before he’d had to struggle to come up to that level.

  Which didn’t come up until he was stuck in a head and arm leg lock. Tony could have gotten out, using pressure against the leg and leverage. Not one hundred percent of the time, but in this case it would have worked, because Missy was a bit out of shape. Fox however, tried to stand up, in order to slam her against the mat. Which wouldn’t do a lot.

  Indeed, the woman under him just tightened the hold and scooted back on the landing. Grunting, but also making it impossible to get the lift again. He didn’t tap out, since Fox wouldn’t, but Missy let go as he was just about to lose consciousness.

  Because Robert was calling it already. A bit soon, maybe, by a few seconds, even if it was what was going to happen anyway. Tony stood up, shaking a bit. Smiling. Robert called the fight.

  “The winner, by submission, Missy “The Rocketeer” Hooooolmmmmms!”

  The crowd went wild.

  Cutely, as Rick took her out of the ring, Sandy moved in with her camera man friend to interview the winner. She did a decent job of it.

  Tony looked on, smiling the whole time. After all, the first part of the job was probably well enough done. Now they just had to reinforce it all. From what he’d found online about that kind of thing, they needed to keep it up for about four hours. With Missy staying there and fighting the whole time. That part was planned for the next day. She was almost back, but the rest of her fear needed to be buried well and truly. It wouldn’t vanish, just not be able to stop her once it was done.

  “Missy! So you beat Fox Rends in the ring here today. Which from what I saw in there was a harder fight than the actual matchup was last year. Any plans to get back in the ring for real now?”

  Sandy held the mic out, which got Missy to take a large breath.

  “Yes. I have a fight lined up. Three months from now, I’m going up against Leandra Mission. There’s a lot of training needed first, but I feel good… Ready to start on that.”

  Sandy touched her ear then, like Steve always did. As if she were listening to someone.

  “They want to know… Any plans to date Tony Winters? You have to admit he looked pretty good out there today…” She was fighting a giggle, though the camera was directed toward Missy’s face, just then, not Sandy’s.

  The woman shrugged a bit.

  “Well… He did look really sexy. I have to give him that. It can be hard to pull off a sports bra with padding in it like that and not seem lumpy. My husband would probably have a problem with that. Tony’s girlfriend too, if he has one.”

  Sandy recovered herself in time for the next question.

  “So, it’s been a hard road back for you, after the Rends fight. Any thoughts about the latest scandal? If she was using steroids for the Lancaster matchup, then it’s possible that she was during yours.”

  It seemed that idea wasn’t lost on the dark haired lady. At least she answered it like the whole thing hadn’t hit her from out of nowhere.

  “I can’t let myself think that. I lost. It’s not a great thing, but there’s no way to prove that it wasn’t just a regular fight. So now I have to regroup, fix my game and start over. I can do it. Thanks to my team and everyone here today. I really think I can now.”

  The camera moved to focus on Sandy then, who managed to be a good bit more serious seeming suddenly.

  “So, you all heard it here first. Missy Holms is officially back. I think we’re all looking forward to seeing that. Back to you, Rob.”

  She froze for a bit, then held the microphone down.

  “Thanks Missy. Nice work out there today. Also good to hear you aren’t going after the guy that I’m currently dating.” She held her face still, turning to look at him with a half-smile on her lips. “Two dates counts for that, right?”

  Missy reached out and gently slapped the younger girl on the shoulder then. She still had her gloves on.

  “You know, I think that literally does. That’s a catch. I wasn’t lying about him looking all cute today.”

  Tony moved in a bit, brushing his pony tail back.

  “Well, time for me to go and transform back into regular Tony. For now. We’re going again tomorrow though, Missy. Four hours, against pretty much everyone needed, not just me. Get ready for that. Right now, it’s shower time.” They let him leave, which was nice of them. It was probably incredibly easy to tease someone for dressing like he was at the moment. When he finished, taking a lot longer than normal since he had to scrub his face for a while first, everyone was gone again. Missy back to the house, since she’d flown in from a different time zone and was a little tired.

  Sandy was off for some other reason. Probably not to get ready for their date, given everything. She had hours for that. Tony needed to get on that, since he had to find the nicest place available where jeans and t-shirts were acceptable. That turned out to be a sea-food place. They had steak and chicken as well, so it would probably be fine. There was even a good dessert menu, from what he could find online. In his uncle’s office.

  Rick came in, not too long after he found things. They had reservations, so he called one in for six-thirty. Also double checking to make sure his guess about attire was correct. The lady on the phone sounded polite about that. Even happy.

  “Oh, sure. Most people don’t really dress up to come here. We look forward to seeing you, Mr. Winters.”

  As soon as he hung up, Rick smiled at him.

  “Phone interview?”

  Blinking once he shook his head.

  “Mid-priced restaurant reservations. I’m taking Sandy out? Well, she’s driving, but you get the idea. It’s her last night in town, I think.” He didn’t add anything else. Mainly because, if she wasn’t telling everyone about her situation, she might not want them to know about it.

  His uncle smiled then.

  “Ah. I’d wondered about that at the interview. Do you know that was going out on the sports network live? The entire match apparently. Missy did look decent out there today. You…” He smiled going larger with it than normal. “Honestly, if I’d just turned on to the match on television I would have thought that it was Fox Rends going up against her again. That was…”

  There was a sound from the door, which got them both to look up. A man was standing there, but it was no one that Tony recognized. Rick seemed to, standing up from the seat he’d taken on the edge of the desk.

  “David! I didn’t know you were in town. This is Tony, my nephew. Tony, this is David Klein. From Fight Night?” Rick clearly got that he might not recognize the face. After all, he didn’t really watch anything that wasn’t directly related to fighting. Still, he’d caught the program once or twice. Mainly as they accused him of being a violent mini-thug. One that consistently beat up poor Ralph Simpson.

  Which hadn’t been true at all, but if they’d made retractions, that part had been missed. It was actually possible, however. Each event had, wonderfully for him, been caught on video.

  David, who was fit enough, if a bit pasty without his stage makeup, extended a hand toward Tony as he stood.

  “What it was, was brilliant. Talking to her camp it had seemed like Holms wasn’t going to even get in the cage for this much action. What I saw out there today from her was… Better. She wasn’t giving her ‘A’ game, but then neither were you. It still wasn’t her rolling up in a ball and cowering, which is what I’d been told to expect. I think she might actually make it back. Now, from my eavesdropping… You’re dating someone? She’s not even a guy or anything?” That was
teasing.

  He nodded a bit, though Rick looked almost ready to hit the man for saying it, even as a joke.

  “I know, amazing, right? I like girls…, but don’t tell anyone. I’m pandering to the LGBT crowd. They’re my peeps, so I don’t want to alienate them.”

  That got a small nod. An oddly serious one.

  “Understood. So, I actually came to see if I could get with Ashley Lancaster? The rest of you hooligans as well. Not you, Tony, who actually pulled things out the other night, but the ones in the cage?”

  Rick took a deep breath, but didn’t get to speak, being cut off by Anthony.

  “Time to call them on the carpet for their poor sportsmanship? I hear that. About time. Things like that make the whole sport look bad. Even if I get why it happened, it isn’t a great thing. On the other hand, it also gets a lot of attention. I suppose the other team has been out already, saying the same thing? That they’re sorry it happened?”

  The man actually snorted at him. Hard enough that his hand flew to his face, to cover his mouth, by reflex.

  “God no. They’re cleverly in hiding. Except Rends. That one is a bit of a problem. The local jail can’t lock her up with the men. Their rules state that post-op transsexuals go in with the women. The thing there is that Fox is a fighter, so they don’t know if that’s safe all the way around. I mean, she’s willing to hit girls, right?”

  It didn’t seem like it should be that important really, to Tony. The woman had lost it in the ring, which wasn’t a great thing. She’d also cheated. That wasn’t the same as wanting to shank someone in the shower. It also wasn’t his problem to deal with at the moment.

  “Let me see if I can round up some people for you? You can use the dining room? That should be big enough.” It took some jogging, but he made good time finding Denny, Raul and Jen. They even agreed to come along with him for the interview. Nick was pulled along, having been there that night as well. Tony wasn’t actually needed for anything, he didn’t think, but when he tried to leave, David Klein shook his head.

  “Stick with us for a bit? You had part of the story after all. The one where you and Erlander Hodder helped to save the day. Like you said, we need to do a bit of rehab on the tarnished reputation of the sport.” The words weren’t harsh, but at least three of the others looked down at the table. Only Raul let his head come up, as if he were feeling proud.

  His voice was firm.

  “Tony is the best. If I ever have a son and he is half of the man that Tony Winters is, I will be the proudest father in the world. The instant I saw he was not foolishly in that scuffle with the rest of us, I understood what would be happening. That he had held our fighter back and was ready to step in for us. I cried later, thinking of that. I won’t even deny it. Real tears. Ones of joy, that he was with us. On our team that night.” It was a bit dramatic sounding, but David nodded, then held up his right hand.

  “We need to get this on camera. My team is off somewhere, getting background footage in the gym. Let me call them?” That took a few moments, but they were in the building, so found the right place a bit later. Unlike the other team, this one didn’t have a cute girl on it at all. Just three men. Not that Tony was looking for another date. He had one that night. Really, he needed to go and see to that, since he wanted another shower first. Just in case they got cuddly at some point.

  Still, he had a responsibility there as well, so stayed as long as he could. Then, at five-thirty, he got up and left, without mentioning why. It wasn’t really any business of the press in particular and no one in the world would care about it other than him. Maybe Sandy. He called her after jogging home, because they hadn’t set up a place to meet.

  She answered on the first ring.

  “Hello!”

  “Hi. Are we meeting at my house? Because that, the gym and the police station are the only landmarks I have around here and meeting at the cop shop would just be strange.”

  He wasn’t that wild about them really. It was an old habit, but one that life on the streets had actually taught him pretty well. The best thing to do in regards to the police was not be near them. Doing anything else was asking for them to make up a reason, or at least find one, to make your life harder. As it was, he needed to get with Riley and make sure his hand was doing better. In a few days at least. It probably wouldn’t have healed enough by that night to make a difference, he knew.

  Also, his asking after that kind of thing while possibly polite enough, since it showed that he was concerned for other people, which was actually true, didn’t do much to help anything at all. What he could do was go and run with the guy, maybe stick with him through some of the other things when it got hard so that he knew he had support. If that made a difference for anyone he didn’t really know, but it was a lot better than doing nothing and figuring that everyone would either fix things for themselves or not.

  That had been what he was used to for most of his life. Only, when he really thought about that, it wasn’t true. Oh, no one had been there for him very often, but when Deirdre or anyone else needed anything, they still acted like they’d expected him to step up for them. Even when he’d been a little kid. For a long time he’d kind of figured that it was because he was a boy. Deidre needed help, because she was weak, lazy and a little bit mentally slow. Only, those had all been personal choices on her part. What she’d picked for herself in life, instead of being what she’d been stuck with. As a girl she’d been a hard working swimming champ, with great grades and a bright future, before she threw it all away. By having him. On purpose, even though she never admitted that to him. To him it had always been that she’d just failed to get an abortion on time.

  It was a strange tangent to go off on while on the phone, so he set it aside for the moment. Not that he didn’t understand why he was thinking those things. All women were a danger to him that way. Not because it was the truth, but due to the fact that Deidre had taught him that way on such a deep level that it was nearly instinct now.

  Something totally a part of him that wasn’t real at all.

  Sandy sounded happy to hear from him at least.

  “I can meet you there at your place? Just remember, I need instructions on how to get where we’re going.” She sounded almost shy about that, but he had that one taken care of already.

  “Ha-ha! I’ve already written that all down for us. Not that it’s hard. You do like sea-food? They have other things, but…” He kind of held his breath. She’d claimed to like almost anything, which meant that she could be allergic to shellfish and just not think of it as food. If so… Well, he could cancel the reservation. It was a week night and other places would be open.

  “I love it. See you in… Half an hour?”

  He nodded, even if she wouldn’t be able to hear him doing it. It was the kind of thing he’d always done on the phone for some reason.

  “See you then. Thanks, Sandy.”

  “Bye.”

  He dashed to get a shower, then dressed at about the same speed. It meant he was slightly damp still when she got there, smiling at him. Wearing the promised jeans and a t-shirt, if with a brown jacket over it. It was getting a little bit chilly out, so he grabbed his own coat. A thing that Jen had taken him to get about a month before one day. There hadn’t been a real reason for it, since his older one still fit. It had a few holes in it, so she’d figured he’d want something a bit sharper looking for the winter.

  Triple checking, he made sure he had his wallet, which had both his cash and debit card in it, just in case. The trick there was being covert about it all, so that it didn’t seem like he was flashing money around or anything. That was always a poor plan. It might impress some women, he knew. Honestly, a lot of them seemed to like you better if you had resources.

  The thing there was that he already had Sandy going out with him. For the second time, which at least meant he was interesting enough to not need tricks to hold her attention. In theory. Not that kind of obvious thing, anyway. No, jokes, stor
ies and being charming would be the requirements that night. That and not dropping the check on her suddenly. That would just be rude.

  The place was nice enough inside. About as good as anyplace he’d ever eaten, if he were going to be honest about that. Anthony had eaten a lot of fast food in his life, but not much by the way of fine, or even mid-priced dining had taken place. A few times, when some of Deirdre’s nicer guy friends had treated them both. Now, as an adult, or at least a person closer to that state, he understood that those men had mainly been trying to show that they were decent people and were willing to care about some strange little kid, to impress Deidre. It was wasted effort.

  She’d broken up with them just as fast as the abusive a-holes. It was kind of a shame, since one or two of them would have probably made her life better, if she could have handled that back then.

  Smiling, he focused on his date. After all, it was screwed up to be dwelling on his bad childhood like he was doing, instead of enjoying the evening.

  After that, he really managed to have a good time. They joked, laughed, ate too much food and even finally had cake. Well, he did. Sandy had a peanut, butter cream pie thing that was both huge and looked like it was mainly formed out of evil. The kind that would tempt you into sin. The cake wasn’t much better. He was, if not good, then still not horrible, leaving half of it.

  Sandy did about the same.

  “It’s great, but a bit rich. This was fun. Thanks, Tony.”

  He nodded a bit then shook his head for a few moments.

  “We aren’t done yet. I saw a putt-putt golf place on the way here. It’s that or parking by the railroad tracks and making out, but there are still some fun things to do.” He settled the bill, left the tip and fully expected an adventure in miniature style golfing. Where he’d lose, of course, not being at all familiar with the game.

  Instead Sandy took him outside, not really speaking to him, until they were in the car.

  “So, railroad tracks? That sounds exciting. If we get serial killed…” She stopped, then went wide eyed at him. “Well, we won’t, will we? You’re a professional fighter and my car has good locks. I like our chances. How do we get there?”